


Teach Me How to Kiss

by EikaTsukiyomi



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is hopeless romantic, Alya is best wingwoman, F/M, Identity Reveal, Kissing, Kissing Lessons, LadyNoir - Freeform, Making Out, Practice Kissing, Reveal, Romance, Seven Minutes In Heaven, Sexual Tension, Trapped In A Closet, adrienette - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 11:16:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10875648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EikaTsukiyomi/pseuds/EikaTsukiyomi
Summary: Marinette wonders: can she practice kissing somehow for the day she gets her first kiss with Adrien?  Would a certain boy in a black catsuit be willing to assist, if she even dares to ask?  Turns out...yes, Chat Noir is MORE than happy to help...but now she can’t get enough of him.  And that’s when things start to get REALLY complicated...





	Teach Me How to Kiss

Part of what made going to the movies with Alya so much fun for Marinette was when the two of them talked about the movie afterwards; Alya was such an observant and inquisitive person that she often noticed little details that Marinette missed, or came up with theories and ideas that she traded for Marinette’s own thoughts and reactions.  And even if it was just a silly rom-com or an action thriller with too many stunts and not enough character development, they could always find ways to laugh at the ridiculous situations and the stupid decisions made by flat and predictable characters.

On this particular occasion, Marinette and Alya had made plans to go see a romantic drama called  _ Last First Kiss, _ which, they read, had received mostly good reviews.  From various summaries of the movie’s plot that they had read online, they gathered that it was about two childhood friends who, after leaving their hometown to attend college in different cities, each went through several unfulfilling relationships before meeting up again during summer break and beginning to fall in love with each other but each failing to confess their feelings to other, first out of denial, then out of fear of losing each other's friendship.  Upon going their separate ways again for their second year, each of them got saddled with one of their exes stalking them, which, the girls assumed would lead to a pair of love triangles that, somehow or other, would have to dramatically resolved into a happy ending for the two main characters.

While it wasn’t particularly original in any notable way, Marinette and Alya had agreed that the film had the potential to create good chemistry with some depth and substance to it if it was written well and cast some good actors for the main roles.  It was a welcome change from the girl-gets-swept-off-her-feet-by-a-sexy-stranger trope, which Alya and Marinette tended to bypass in favor of something more exciting.  Alya was quick to point out to Marinette that the boy romantic hero was tall, blonde, and athletic, but without looking like he “spends 6 hours every day at the gym and takes steroids with his sports drinks.”  Marinette’s response was predictably critical, and thinking back, Alya realized she should have seen it coming.

“I’d definitely gravitate toward him as a love interest rather than that hit-man from  _ Night Rush _ \--remember, the last movie we saw?--but just being tall, blonde, and athletic isn’t  _ nearly  _ enough to capture  _ my  _ heart!”  Marinette smiled smugly and stuck her nose in the air.

Alya sniggered; she could practically  _ see _ a glowing portrait of Adrien appear in Marinette’s brain.

“No, if a guy has any hope of going out with you, he’s gotta be tall, blonde, have green eyes, and be a model, good at basketball, and fencing,  _ and _ piano, and look like he was sculpted by angels...so basically, Adrien Agreste.”

“Rude!  You forgot to mention how sweet and humble and smart he is,” Marinette scolded, “And how his hair just shines like a golden halo when the sunlight hits it…” Marinette’s face melted into an expression of undisguised adoration as she let her rant trail off.  Seeing a clumsy accident waiting to happen, Alya carefully steered Marinette into a row of theater seats and sat her down, before she could trip and tumble down the steps.

“Ooh, and he could probably talk dirty to you in Chinese, too!” Alya added, sitting down.  She took a sip of her drink and sent a sinful leer at Marinette.

If Marinette had still been holding the drinks, she would have flung them into the air with her now-flailing hands.

“Oh my god, Alya!” she squeaked, hiding her face behind her hands.  “Now I’m probably gonna burst into flames the second I see him at school tomorrow, thanks to you!  Agh, just kill meeeee…”

“Sorry, sorry!” Alya said, grinning apologetically.  “I’ll make it up to you: I’ll bring up movies with Nino tomorrow while Adrien’s around, so you can ask him what movies he likes.  Then you’ll have an idea for a date all ready to go!”

“Thanks, but I probably won’t even be able to form a full sentence in front of him,” Marinette whimpered.  “Or I’ll say something weird and embarrassing, like, ‘What moves like you?’”

Alya burst out laughing and immediately got shushed by a couple two rows behind them.

“Sorry!” she whispered up at them.  She turned back to Marinette. “Well, maybe you’ll pick up a trick or two from this movie’s heroine,” she said, settling more comfortably in her seat and holding out her giant bag of popcorn for Marinette.  

The lights faded out, and so the two girls finally faced the screen.

Marinette was pleased with how the movie built up the chemistry between the main characters slowly and how the people each of them went out with while at their respective colleges seemed like decent people at first until the relationships turned ugly and revealed each of their shortcomings.  The acting was pretty good overall, but nothing to rave about.  She had a hard time enjoying the love scenes until the big important one between the two main characters.  They had good chemistry together, and the scene was shot in such a way to create a tender, romantic atmosphere in contrast to the more impulsive, heated encounters earlier in the movie.

Now, Marinette had seen a countless number of movie kisses, and had seen a couple of movies rated 16 for sexual content before this one, so it wasn’t as if seeing this movie exposed her to anything she hadn’t seen before...but for some reason, she found herself very engrossed in the various kissing sequences.  This movie gave her some rather nice close-up shots of lips coming together in various ways, and it got her thinking.  She hadn’t thought of it before for some reason, but the way kissing was most often portrayed in movies like this made it look a  _ lot _ more complicated than, say, kissing her parents.  In fact, she realized, it was possible she knew even less about kissing than she thought.

After the movie, Marinette and Alya rode the metro back, talking about the movie all the way.  Marinette didn't say anything about her new interest in the art of kissing until they got back to her house for a bite to eat and some extra time to hang out in her room.  

“So, hey, Alya,” Marinette began.  “How close do you think movie kisses are to kisses in real life?  I mean, is that what making out is supposed to look like?  I don't think I’ve ever seen two people kiss like that in real life, just, you know, my parents and moms and their kids giving each other little pecks, and those kisses are  _ totally _ different from the kind lovers in movies give each other...so, like...do they exaggerate it in the movies, or have I just never seen a real-life demonstration?”

“Well, first of all, watching two people make out in real life is almost always super awkward and kinda gross,” Alya said, laughing.  “Like, if you accidentally walked in on your parents kissing like  _ that _ , you wouldn't stick around and watch, would you?”

Marinette screwed up her face, trying to picture this strange situation.

“Uh...I guess not,” she said.  “Mostly, I'm just having trouble imagining it.”

“It's because your brain is trying to protect you,” Alya said with exaggerated seriousness.  “It's probably for the best.”

“Ha ha ha, maybe!” Marinette laughed.  “But then, why is it fun to watch in a movie?  Is it because we imagine ourselves kissing the romantic love interest?  Like with romance novels?”

“Yeah, exactly,” Alya said, gesturing with a cookie.  “Plus, it probably helps that the characters aren't real people that we know.  Would you want to watch, say, me and Nino making out on a movie screen?”

“I think that might be cute, actually…” Marinette admitted.  “You two make a cute couple!”

“Thanks, I guess!” Alya said, snickering.  “You might change your mind if we started sticking our tongues into each other's mouths, though!”

“Have you two graduated to kissing that deeply?!” Marinette gasped.  “When was this?!”

“No, we haven't!” Alya said, now hugging herself trying not to laugh too hard.  

“Oh…”  Marinette thought back to one of her favorite love scenes in the movie and tried to picture again exactly what their mouths had been doing.  “Well, have you done any kissing like how they do in the movies?”

“Ehhh, kinda?”  Alya stared at the ceiling for a moment, clearly looking back on her past dates with Nino.  “I mean, I guess we’ve technically done a little bit of kissing with our lips kinda open, but it didn't, like, escalate smoothly from sweet first kisses to open-mouthed kissing to deep kissing to whatever you call all the making out before the transition into a sex scene like they do in the movies.  They make it look so easy and smooth in the movies, but that's ‘cause the actors kept redoing the shot until it was easy.  Plus, they probably had experience kissing a bunch of other actors for movie scenes, so they're like professional kissers, practically.”

“So it takes practice?” Marinette wondered.  “But then, wouldn't all first kisses be awkward and embarrassing?  How do you get a good first kiss?  What am I gonna do about my first kiss with Adrien?!”

Alya burst out laughing again.

“I  _ knew _ this was gonna come back to Adrien!” she wheezed, cackling.  “Oh my god, girl, you’ve got it so bad!”

“I need to know how to do it right!  Alya, I’ve gotta!  Just trying to ask him out is hard enough for me right now, how am I gonna kiss him without embarrassing myself if I don't even know how?!  Alya, help me!”

“I hear you, I hear you!” Alya gasped, rubbing her eyes.  Marinette stared impatiently at Alya with her eyes bugging out while she waited for her best friend to pull herself together.  She blindly reached over a grabbed a cookie from the plate between them on the floor and took a bite without breaking her gaze at Alya.  She knew she probably looked a little crazed, but this was serious!

“Okay...so…” Alya gasped, grinning giddily as she tried to catch her breath.  “First of all, by the time you and Adrien have gotten close enough to where you feel like kissing him, you won’t be nearly as shy and nervous around him as you do now.”  Alya paused to take a sip of her iced tea.  “So, even though it’ll still be a little nerve-wracking, it won’t be as terrifying as you think now.  You won’t mind embarrassing yourselves in front of each other nearly as much, ‘cause it’s just a new step in your relationship.”  She pointed a finger at Marinette for emphasis.  “Now, obviously, the sooner you actually get around to asking him out, the sooner you two will get around to kissing.”  Then, she smirked and jiggled her glass in her hand like she was a cabaret girl drinking a martini.  “Now, on the other hand, if you’re looking for an opportunity to kiss him  _ before _ going through all that, there are ways I might be able to make that happen…”  She leaned forward conspiratorially and wiggled her eyebrows at Marinette.

Immediately, a fantasy of her kissing Adrien until they were both breathless sprung into Marinette’s head.  A goofy grin spread across her face as she allowed the scene to play out in her head.  When it started to toe the line of 17 she hit the stop button and focused her eyes back on Alya, her smile falling off.

“I would love the chance to kiss him, but if the mood isn't right and  _ he _ isn’t in the mood to kiss me, then it won’t feel right at all.  I want  _ him  _ to want to kiss  _ me _ …”  A dreamy smile had managed to creep back onto her face, and she sighed dreamily.  “I wanna see what that longing looks like on his face when he gazes into my eyes…”

“Whew!”  Alya put down her glass and fanned herself with one hand.  “Well,  _ somebody’s _ got the hots for this boy, and it sounds like she wants to  _ burn down the house _ with him!”

Marinette covered her now-glowing, pink face with her hands and made a muffled squealing noise.  Alya cackled gleefully.

“Well, let me know if you want to to help set you up on a movie date!” Alya said.  “I keep telling you, movie dates are the way to go: you spend most of the time watching the screen, so there’s no pressure to talk to him, you can just enjoy sitting next to each other...in a dark theater…”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Marinette squeaked.  “Seriously, I would watch a historical documentary if I could be with Adrien, but I just can’t get past the asking-him-out part…”

“You’ll get there, girl!  I believe in you!”  Alya stood up and stretched.  “I should probably head home right about now.  I’m too full of baked goods to eat dinner, but my folks will want me back by dinnertime, anyway.”

“Yeah,” Marinette stood up, too, and started gathering up the plates and glasses.

Alya helped Marinette clean up and thanked Marinette’s parents for the iced tea and cookies.  Marinette waved good-bye to Alya at the door, and then went back up to her room.  She told herself it was to do some homework before bed, but the first thing she did after sitting at her desk was hit the spacebar on her keyboard.  Her computer monitor blinked on and revealed her desktop, which was decorated with a collage of photos of Adrien taken from various fashion magazines.  It was the second wallpaper of its kind that she had made; this one was composed of more recently-published pictures that, when compared the one she had used to make her first wallpaper, really showed how much more handsome Adrien had grown over the past year and a half.

Marinette sighed wistfully and rested her elbows on the desk and her face in her hands, and gazed longingly at the five or six Adriens modeling young menswear in various elegant poses.

“Oh, Adrien...do you even have any idea how gorgeous you are?  Ah, probably not...you’re so modest and selfless…”

Tikki whizzed over to float next to Marinette’s head.  She giggled to herself when she saw what Marinette was staring at.

“...But how often do you hear about how many girls in Paris would kill to have one kiss with you…?”

“I wonder how it feels for Adrien to know that thousands of girls would love to kiss him just because he’s handsome…” Tikki wondered aloud.  While she was pleased to see that Marinette was learning to not put Adrien on a pedestal all the time, she was always keeping an eye out for learning opportunities she could offer, especially since thinking critically wasn’t always easy when one was young and in love.

“I do  _ not _ want to kiss him  _ just _ because he’s handsome!” Marinette said, turning her head to scowl at Tikki.  “I want to kiss him because I  _ love _ him!”

“I wasn’t talking about you, Marinette,” Tikki said with a patient smile.  “I was talking about all of the fangirls that have celebrity crushes on him but don’t know him as a person.”

“Oh...right, sorry!” Marinette said sheepishly.  She turned back to stare at Adrien again, now looking thoughtful.  “I’m sure it’s flattering in a way...but he probably gets tired of all the attention sometimes.  And I’m sure he wouldn’t like the idea of kissing a girl he didn’t like, or didn’t even  _ know _ !”

“And that’s why I think Adrien will be happier kissing you  _ after _ you two have gotten to know each other better,” Tikki said.  “So, even though that movie makes kissing him sound  _ really _ exciting, you’ll both enjoy it a lot more if you don’t rush things.”

“I know you’re probably right, Tikki,” Marinette grumbled, laying her head down on the desk.  “But I don’t even know  _ how _ to kiss him properly!  Alya didn’t finish telling me...”

“Does there even have to be a right way to kiss someone?” Tikki asked pointedly.  “I think you’re overthinking it.  Shouldn’t you figure out how to ask him out on a date first?”

“Yes, but I’ll worry about kissing him, too, if I feel like like it,” Marinette replied stubbornly.

“Suit yourself!” Tikki chirped.  “But if you’re not going to work on your homework, maybe you should get ready for bed.”

Marinette sighed.

“Yeah, I guess so,” she grumbled.    


She heaved herself out of her chair and went downstairs to brush her teeth.  When she came back up, she changed into her pajamas, but before approaching the stairs to her bed, she approached the mirror above her vanity on a whim, and found herself examining her own lips with an almost scientific curiosity.  Tikki watched in bemusement as Marinette closed her eyes, tilted her head, and puckered her lips as if she were kissing someone invisible.  She froze in place as if posing for a picture, and then opened her eyes to see what her reflection looked like.

Since her lips weren’t actually pressed against someone else's, it wasn’t a perfect reference, but she still thought she could tell that she wasn’t doing something right.  Was she puckering her lips too much?  Her kissing face didn’t really look  _ kissable _ , in her opinion...not in a passionately romantic way, anyway.  It looked more like the face someone would make to kiss a kitten on the head or a baby on the cheek, not a lover.  She tried relaxing her lips, but then she didn’t look like she was kissing anybody at all.  She tried to find a happy medium, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t make her expression look like the movie’s romantic heroine’s kissing face.  Did kissing faces look weird no matter what unless you were actually kissing someone?  If that was the case, how was she supposed to figure it out?  Was there really no other way to practice except by kissing someone else for real?!  She didn’t  _ want _ to kiss anyone besides Adrien, and she wanted her first kiss with  _ Adrien  _ to be good, dammit!  Was that so wrong?

She relaxed her face and sighed, giving up.

“You know, Marinette, I really don’t think anyone is good at kissing at first.  You won’t learn how to kiss someone else’s lips by practicing on something  _ other _ than a pair of lips, you know?”

Marinette scowled as she climbed up to her bed.

“You  _ might  _ be right, Tikki, but I’m not giving up yet!” Marinette said stubbornly.


End file.
